[Sca-cooks] newbee cook attempting feast for the first time in december

[Stefan li Rous]

Bear replied to Elisande with:
>
> As for advice, a great feast is more about logistics than cooking.   
> Good
> plain fare, served on time and and at temperature, is superior to the
> fanciest fare that doesn't quite make it to the table in good order.

Elisande, welcome to the SCA-Cooks list!

It looks like you may be getting close to being overwhelmed with  
answers to your original questions, so I won't try to elaborate on  
them. Besides, I don't have much on portion control or sizing.

However, when you dig out from under all this, there are some how-to  
files in the FEASTS section of the Florilegium which might prove to be  
of use, such as.

bread-for-fsts-msg (42K) 5/15/06    Baking and buying bread for SCA  
feasts.
fd-kitch-staf-msg  (8K) 10/23/08    Feeding your kitchen staff.
feast-serving-msg (134K) 2/24/08    Ideas for serving feasts. How to  
organize.
Fst-Managemnt-art (12K)  7/22/01    "Feast Management" by Lady Eden  
Blacksmith.
Fst-Menus-art     (11K)  8/22/04    "On Rules for Feast Menus"
                                       by Lord Daniel Raoul le Vascon  
du Navarre.
HC-butchers-art   (13K) 10/ 4/97    For Headcooks - How to work with  
your local
                                        butcher.
headcooks-msg    (180K) 10/ 9/08    Advice for SCA headcooks. Planning  
feasts.
ingred-lists-msg  (18K)  4/ 6/07    Posting ingredient lists at SCA  
feasts.
kitch-toolbox-msg  (8K) 11/30/02    Suggested items to put in a  
kitchen toolbox.
kitchen-clean-msg (16K)  5/26/08    Cleaning the kitchen after an SCA  
event.
kitchen-tips-msg  (22K) 11/ 4/08    Practical, short kitchen tips for  
SCA feasts
kitchn-gloves-msg  (6K)  6/28/07    Comments on using gloves in the  
kitchen.
kitchn-safety-msg (14K) 12/ 6/06    Kitchen safety for SCA feasts.
practice-fsts-msg  (7K)  2/14/01    Using practice feasts.
Run-a-Feast-art   (14K) 11/ 2/98    "About Running a Feast" by Minna  
Gantz.

As Bear mentions there is a lot more to putting on a successful feast  
than just being a good cook. The ability to handle the logistics of a  
feast and to keep a clear head when trouble occurs, and it almost  
always will, is rather important.

And just to remind you, that no matter how stressed you feel, it could  
be worse. And people have managed to pull off feasts under horrible  
odds, there is this file.
fst-disasters-msg (70K)  3/23/08    Tales of SCA feasts that were  
disasters.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****